The Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime will hit the UK at the beginning of next year, and a number of retailers have already put the tablet, the first to come with a quad core processor, on the market. Dixons, however, is undercutting the current suggested retail price of £500 by offering a £25 discount even before the first item goes on sale, by using the code XMAS5 at checkout.

The tablet comes with Android 3.2 Honeycomb but should receive an update to Ice Cream Sandwich within a few months. The Transformer Prime is powered by an Nvidia Tegra 3 quad core processor clocked at 1.4GHz, 1GB RAM, 32GB onboard storage, a 1.2-megapixel front facing and an eight megapixel rear camera, a 10.1-inch 1280x800 pixel capacitive screen, a microSD card slot, USB, Bluetooth, HDMI out and dimensions to rival those of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 and the iPad 2.

What makes the Transformer Prime special though is its docking station, which has a full keyboard, a trackball, an SD card reader and a built in battery that adds an additional six hours to the already respectable 12 hours battery life the Prime reaches on its own.